Diolch, Lywydd. I move all the amendments tabled in the name of my colleague, Paul Davies AM. I have to say that, unfortunately, we will not be supporting the UKIP motion this afternoon because the Welsh Conservatives, frankly, recognise that Wales is different to England. We believe that the education landscape is different, and, as a result of that, we are not currently persuaded—[Interruption.] We are not currently persuaded that selection in our education system is the right way forward for schools here. Instead, we believe that the education system should be one that thrives on choice—pupil choice, learner choice, and, indeed, parental choice—and one thing that is absolutely woeful at the moment is that many people are denied the choice of school that they want to attend. There are hundreds of pupils, each year in some schools, who are turned away from those schools simply because there are insufficient numbers of places in them. There are barriers at the moment to those schools being allowed to create more places to accommodate the pupils who want to attend those schools. That is wrong. We want to see the Welsh Government take action to remove those barriers so that good, successful schools can thrive, so that they can grow where there is demand for places within them.

Now, we recognise that the Welsh Government has a surplus places policy here in Wales, which is causing local authorities to look at the provision within their areas in order to try and address some of these problems. But, unfortunately, the pace of change in terms of being able to provide for the demand for extra places in successful schools is not currently being met. We want to see an acceleration of the ability of those schools to expand. I hope very much that the Cabinet Secretary will be charitable in her response to our contribution to this debate this afternoon because, like her, I want to see the schools of Wales being amongst the best in the world. I really do believe that we have some schools that are amongst the best in the world on our doorsteps. But, unfortunately, not every school is a great school in Wales. We have to accept that that is a fact and we need to ensure that we have all schools raising their game so that every young person gets the best possible chance in life that their school can prepare them for.

Now, I’m a politician who’ll never say never to any idea. If there is a time in the future where the evidence suggests that social mobility is enhanced by grammar schools or by selection in the system, then I’ll be prepared to look at that. But, at the moment, we’re not persuaded that the evidence is there.

I’ve looked interestingly at the situation in Northern Ireland where, of course, there are more grammar schools within the state system. Their performance in terms of GCSE and A-level attainment is very, very good. But, of course, the other big difference in Northern Ireland is that there are a huge number of faith schools. So, what is it about Northern Ireland that makes the difference in terms of educational attainment and school performance? No one can really put their finger on the button and say it’s absolutely down to grammar schools. I don’t believe that it’s just about selection either. So, I want to see more evidence about this.

I’m not persuaded that the situation in Wales merits a switch to selection in our education system. But, I do believe that the best driver of improved performance in schools is catering for parental choice and extending more parental and pupil choice in its entirety. I wonder, Minister, whether today, in response to this debate, you’ll be able to tell us what your plans are to allow good, successful schools, where there’s extra demand, to expand. I think it’s wrong that many thousands of children each year are not getting access to the schools that they want to be able to attend.